Make Life Easier

I am always looking for ways to make life easier, and I like sharing my ideas with other people. Each time I discover something new, I am surprised that I didn’t think of it long before I made improvements to my every day life with it.

Everybody knows about the big things people can do to make life easier such as:

• Being nice to your boss
• Not drinking or texting while driving
• Smiling a lot
• Getting Organized

However, it’s the little things that really make a difference. Here are some for you to think about:

1. When possible, wear clothes more than one time. This cuts laundry duties in half.
2. Wash dishes by hand and let them air dry.
3. Hang permanent press clothes while they are damp. There is no ironing needed in most cases.
4. Use two dusters at a time. This cuts dusting time in half.
5. Use a small fishing tackle box for daily meds and vitamins. This saves having to open each bottle each day. Refill the box as needed.
6. Keep over the counter meds in a container, and refill the tackle box with them as needed.
7. Keep prescription meds separate from over the counter meds. Keep those for daily use in a small basket for quick access.
8. Wear only permanent press clothing.
9. Keep bed coverings simple. Make the bed immediately upon rising each morning.
10. Use separate sheets and blankets for each person who shares the bed. This makes sleeping easier.
11. Replace carpets with Pergo flooring. It always looks great and takes about five minutes to clean (as opposed to vacuuming).
12. Use a jar gripper to open stubborn jars. Saves a trip to the hand doctor for a case of tendonitis.
13. Keep phone numbers on index cards in an alphabetized index box.
14. Buy annual greeting cards all at once. When buying them, also buy small batches of get well, thank you and sympathy cards. This saves many trips to the card shop.
15. Keep a good supply of stamps on hand.
16. Use Ecards where possible. Create one card and send it to as many as 100 people. No cost is involved. Use the greeting card’s website address book to make accessing email addresses easy. This saves a ton of time and money and allows for advance card preparation.
17. Don’t cook with grease. It gets all over everything and is difficult to clean.
18. Do use a crock pot, microwave oven or electric frying pan for cooking. Use Pam when needed, and cleanup will be a breeze.
19. Try not to use the oven, especially for messy meals.
20. Keep a small spiral notebook in the kitchen and jot down grocery needs as they come up. Carry the pad when shopping to avoid forgetting anything.
21. Back up important documents on a flash drive. Then back up the flash drive with another flash drive, just in case.
22. If you are married or have a roommate, set up a chore schedule. This will cut cleaning time in half. Do the same for grocery shopping.
23. Set up a spreadsheet to keep track of medical and dental appointments, prescription purchases, etc. Include prices, and at the end of each year, use this information to help with tax preparation.
24. Use a mixture of ammonia and water to clean jewelry. It only takes a few minutes, is cheap and makes the jewelry look like new.
25. Plan dinner menus in the morning to allow time for defrosting or slow cooking.
26. Cook with leftovers when possible.
27. Always cook rice and spaghetti noodles ahead of time and keep them in the refrigerator. Use them with leftovers to make a quick meal or as fillers for soup stock.

None of these ideas are complicated or hard to do, but all of them make life a little easier for people. Some save money. Others save time. All of will improve your daily life if you decide to give them a try.

There's no question that an easier life is a better life, so why not make life easier for yourself. Who knows, you may wind up coming up with even more ideas than the ones I listed in this article!